Kaiser Ayreon IV: Difference between revisions

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Meanwhile, in [[Stormark]], the government there saw the estates inherited there by him upon his [[Adam Anushiruwân|father's]] and his grandmother [[Kaiseress Noor|Noor]]'s deaths fall into malmanagement and disarray. The Kaiser, [[Auspicious Occasion|for obvious reasons]] precluded from dealing with the Storish authorities or visiting the country, had, in the Storish government's view, interests in these assets. Maintaining a hope that the Kaiser would, at some point in the future, have the strength and courage to restore relations with Stormark and provide restoration to the country for the events during the Auspicious Occasion, the Storish government introduced a bill in the Althing (in mid 1658) that made Ayreon's (illegitimate) aunt [[Esther Fatima Gudrid]] his legal guardian in that country. She would take care of all his assets there until such time that the Kaiser would go there. Hearing the news of these events, the Kaiser was genuinely surprised that he indeed had any assets in Stormark of value, and was intrigued to their worth. When asking his tutors of the matter, they refused to go into any detail, and the [[Imperial Advisory Council]] unequivocally informed the kaiser that he may not, under any circumstances, travel to Stormark or deal with any assets of his there.
Meanwhile, in [[Stormark]], the government there saw the estates inherited there by him upon his [[Adam Anushiruwân|father's]] and his grandmother [[Kaiseress Noor|Noor]]'s deaths fall into malmanagement and disarray. The Kaiser, [[Auspicious Occasion|for obvious reasons]] precluded from dealing with the Storish authorities or visiting the country, had, in the Storish government's view, interests in these assets. Maintaining a hope that the Kaiser would, at some point in the future, have the strength and courage to restore relations with Stormark and provide restoration to the country for the events during the Auspicious Occasion, the Storish government introduced a bill in the Althing (in mid 1658) that made Ayreon's (illegitimate) aunt [[Esther Fatima Gudrid]] his legal guardian in that country. She would take care of all his assets there until such time that the Kaiser would go there. Hearing the news of these events, the Kaiser was genuinely surprised that he indeed had any assets in Stormark of value, and was intrigued to their worth. When asking his tutors of the matter, they refused to go into any detail, and the [[Imperial Advisory Council]] unequivocally informed the kaiser that he may not, under any circumstances, travel to Stormark or deal with any assets of his there.


===The Elian Union===
Spending more and more time in Natopia, particularly in [[Normark]], whose language he spoke with native fluency, and in [[Lindström]], the Kaiser attended to the government of the [[Elian Union]], assisted by his tutors and advisers whilst enjoying the continued protection of his [[shire:Order of the Sentinels|Sentinels]] and the looming cannons of the [[shire:IRS Medusa|Medusa]] providing a vigilant overwatch of his residence. He took particular interest in the Norse nation and he was instrumental in setting up a separate Norse demesne within the Elian Union. Ayreon's governing in the Elian Union was widely considered to be a practice round of rule before he was to take on the kaisership a few years later in 1660.
Privately, whenever he was in Lindström, he spent a lot of a time with the Natopian emperor, [[Nathan II]], and the two grew very close. Nathan became Ayreon's close companion with whom he could relax, with only his close protection detail from the [[shire:Order of the Sentinels]] monitoring his words and actions (as to order their removal would have triggered a cascading diplomatic incident).
Ayreon was also present in Natopia during the death of the former [[Alexandria]]n emperor [[Edgard II]]. He attended memorials for the late emperor as Kaiser and as King, remembering fondly how their relationship began after the death of Ayreon's grandmother [[Kaiseress Noor|Noor]], whose funeral Edgard, battling his own illnesses, took large efforts in attending.
Having inherited the Duchy of [[Istvanistan]] in Neridia after the death of his grandmother Noor, Ayreon had at this time taken on his right to take part in the government of the Most Serene Union. Though after some disagreements with the Shirerithian-originated Neridian prince [[Janus Eadric]] on the powers of the Duchy and on the future constitutional direction of the demesne, Ayreon sought to abdicate that duchy. At this point, Ayreon's advisers proposed an alternative solution, so as to avoid the unfortunate precedent of the Kaiser abdicating titles and lands bestowed by an [[Natopia|allied power]]. Accordingly, they brought together representatives of the Most Serene Union, the Principality of Arboria, and of course the Elian Union, to broker a complicated deal on changes of noble territorial jurisdiction. For Ayreon's part, it meant that he in 1658 disavowed his claim on the Duchy of Istvanistan, whilst retaining certain privileges there, and return acquired the duchy of New Aquitane from the Principality of Arboria. To square the circle and reward Arboria, the underdeveloped Transegale territory, along with a few small islands on the western coast of Benacia, was ceded by the Elian Union. In this way all three demesne unions were said to have gained something from the convoluted chain of territorial exchanges.
The only drawback for the Elian Union and Arboria was that their demesnal unions no longer made strict sense as territorial and cultural entities. The Elian Union had always seemed to be a somewhat haphazard assembly of Keltian, Benacian, Cibolan, and Tapferite territories, now the recent Tapferite gains had been swapped out for a landlocked Apollonian duchy. Similarly Arboria's rule over the Transegale made scant sense either, except maybe as a colonial enterprise - and the [[Isabella Simrani-Kalirion|Princess of Arboria]] was reputedly well satisfied by the addition of Tapferite copper mines to the portfolio of her burgeoning maritime realms.




[[Category:Fictional people]][[Category:Normark]][[Category:Elwynn]][[Category:Shireroth]]
[[Category:Fictional people]][[Category:Normark]][[Category:Elwynn]][[Category:Shireroth]]
[[Category:Kaisers]]
[[Category:Kaisers]]

Revision as of 14:32, 23 March 2020

Conversion from Shirewiki article in progress


Kaiser Ayreon IV
Ayreon4.jpeg
Full name Vidar Salim Livarson Ayreon-Kalirion ibn al-Majeed al-Osman bin Sathrati of Waffel-Paine
AKA Vidar Ayreon
Physical information
Species Human
Gender Male
Hair color and style Blond hair
Eye color Blue
Skin color White
Biographical information
Father Adam, Khan of Cabbagefall
Mother Liv Djupvik
Date of birth 1645
Place of birth Raynor's Keep
Date of death 1671
Place of death Raynor's Keep
Residence(s) Raynor's Keep
Nationality Shirerithian
Allegiance(s) Line of Ayreon-Kalirion
Occupation Kaiser


Kaiser Ayreon IV (born Vidar Salim Livarson Ayreon-Kalirion ibn al-Majeed al-Osman bin Sathrati of Waffel-Paine at Raynor's Keep, 8 Gevraquun, 1645; died (murdered) at Raynor's Keep, 12.VIII.1671) was the Kaiser of Shireroth (since 1650 until his death in 1671. He had also been ruling Prince-Regent of Natopia twice (1654–1655, and for a few months in 1660). He was the son of Adam, Khan of Cabbagefall and Liv, and the grandson of Kaiseress Noor. Before his coronation (1.IX.1661), Kaiser Ayreon IV's Shirerithian government was exercised by the Regent, a position last held by the duke of Calezi (1656–1661).

Background

Name

Vidar Salim Livarson Ayreon-Kalirion ibn al-Majeed al-Osman bin Sathrati of Waffel-Paine is the Kaiser's full name. His family and closest friends call him Vidar, an old Norse name related to a Norse forest god. His middle name is Salim, a Babkhi name of Baatharzi origin, meaning "peaceful", named so by his grandmother Kaiseress Noor after her own epithet al-Salaam ("of the peace"). Livarson, "son of Liv" in Hurmu–Farewellish, is his matronymic, given so to show that he is not only his father Adam's son. His last name Ayreon-Kalirion ibn al-Majeed al-Osman bin Sathrati of Waffel-Paine consists of a number of components; Ayreon-Kalirion is his bloodline, ibn al-Majeed ("descendant of Majeed") refers to the founder of the Simrani family Majeed, al-Osman refers to his belonging to the House of Osman through his father's maternal grandmother, bin Sathrati means that he is a descendant of the first Emir of Sathrati, Rashid Arsalani (Kaiser Ayreon), and Waffel-Paine is his dynastic house from his father's grandfather Nathan Waffel-Paine.

In Elw, his name is written Видар Салим Ливарсон Аериоон-Калирион ивн ал-Мажид ал-Осмон бин Сатрати аф Уофел-Пеин (Vidar Salim Livarson Aerioon-Kalirion ibn al-Mazhid al-Osmon bin Satrati af Uofel-Pein), and pronounced /βidaʁ salim liβaʁson aəʁioːn kaləʁion iβnalmaʑidalosmon bin satʁati aɸ uoɸəlpəin/. Usually, however, it is written as his regnal name, Аериоон 4 Қаисар (Aerioon 4 Qaisar).

Family

His father was Prince Adam, the Khan of Cabbagefall. He never met his father, not even once. He was separated from his mother, Liv, and stepfather Daniel Dravot, in 1649, after reports surfaced that the mother was unloving to him and treated him with disdain (understandable given his conception was from rape) and made a ward of the Imperial Republic. His mother has visitation rights to her son, though she has not exercised them once since the separation. During his time with his mother and stepfather, the family spoke Normark Norse. He learnt Hurmu Norse from his maternal grandfather, Arviður (1535–1652) who remained loving towards him. He spoke Babkhi with his paternal grandmother, Noor.

Ethnically, Ayreon IV was roughly one third Hurmu, one fourth Norse and one fifth Babkhi. The rest is accounted by Tapferite, Brookshirian, Elw, Storish and Novaya Zemlyan heritage. Among his ancestors are four Kaisers (Ayreon, Aurangzeb, Ayreon II, Noor), four Babkhan shahanshahs (Ardashir, Tahmaseb, Rashid, Osman), and two Natopian emperors (Nathan, Nathaniel), as well as from rulers from Elwynn (6), Brookshire (2), and Goldshire (2).

He belonged to the houses of Ayreon-Kalirion, Osman and Waffel-Paine, and to the imperial bloodlines of Ayreon-Kalirion and Steffki.

Since 1664, he had one concubine, Lady Isidora IV of Octavius-Teleni, with whom he had a daughter in 1665, Salome, who became next in line to the Mango Throne. In 1667, the Kaiser, acting through his concubine, produced twins, Kir Azariah Vidar and Kian Aiomide Shahnaz, and after his death, Rubin Leonid Orientalis in 1671 (she was already pregnant when he died)

He married Natopian emperor Nathan II in 1670 after a prolonged struggle with the Imperial Advisory Council on the matter. Their marriage was short as the kaiser died the following year.

Life

Infancy

After the marriage alliance between the Khanum Liv and the Steward, Daniyal Dravot, Adam's infant son, Vidar, was transferred to Shirekeep and confinement in the Steward's Tower under the care of a governess not overly given to sentimentality.

The Steward's System was a set of rules designed by Daniyal Dravot and his wife concerning the upbringing of the child of Adam Ayreon-Kalirion, who had been borne by Liv against her will as the victim of rape and a forced marriage.

The System had been aimed at encouraging the child to incline habitually towards notions of obedience, duty and service, in contrast to the arrogance and entitlement which had thoroughly corrupted the infant's father.

The infant, would be constantly supervised in the presence of his Governess, Yara Rose of Erudition, and to be kept isolated from other children. The Steward and the Khanum strictly monitored and recorded every action the toddler made and entirely controlled who was allowed access to the boy in the Steward's Tower.

His only other companion, aside from her Governess, was the young Azardokht al-Osman, a hostage of the Steward kept in order to ensure the good behaviour of the House of Osman which ruled the southern isles by the threat that she could be married off to create a rival claimant.

Future plans for the infant's early education revolved around a strict daily schedule. Morning lessons would begin at 08.30 and continue until 11.30. Lessons would then resume at 14.00 and continue until 19.00.

The education would begin, with full rigour, at the age of five years old. In addition to the standard subjects taught under the Agnesia–Alalehzamin System the boy would learn, decorum, the Holodomatic scriptures and later languages.

The Khanum's strictest instruction was that under no circumstances was the child to have any contact with his father, nor to learn anything of Adam except for his crimes and the depth of his depravity.

At the age of seventeen the boy was to have been assigned to an Imperial Regiment and then sent off to manage a farm in Ran to learn responsibility, which tends to be overlooked when educating Kalirions. This, however, was not to be. Following the flight of the Steward, Sikander Dravot along with his wife the Khanum of Cabbagefall - pursued by a curse laid by the shade of Tokaray al-Osman bound with the Sword of Vengeance presently presumed lost in Balgurd - the boy fell under the influence of his grandmother's courtiers who encouraged him to resent and chafe against the bonds of the necessary discipline with which he had been raised. It now seemed certain that Vidar, who had become Kaiser by virtue of the dynastic succession, would follow in the same damaged, self-harming and neurotic footsteps of his ancestors.

Early kaisership

Kaiser Ayreon IV, nicknamed Kid Kaiser by Shireroth and the world, on his accession in 1650.

Upon his unexpected ascension to the Kaisership at such an early age, the Imperial Steward Kyle Kilynn took measures to secure the child kaiser and provide for his education until his majority. In recognition of the close relationship between Prince Kyle and the Kaiser's uncle, Pentheros Zahir al Din, the agreement was that the Pentheros would be responsible for the Kaiser's religious education according to the theology of the Dozan Bovic Church. Few provisions were made for the Kaiser's legal, social and formal education, which resulted in the Kaiser quickly becoming spoiled and overenergetic (due to a high sugar intake). In 1651, Steward Kyle Kilynn appointed Soraya Octavius-Parini to the position of Chamberlain of the Imperial Household in an effort to discipline the child-kaiser.

The Kaiser was from 1647 without contact with his mother until her appointment as Steward in 1651, and Ayreon was believed to have compensated that loss of motherly affection with affection from other women, particularly Princess Kizzy Drakland and Countess Mira Octavius-Aryani. He was now fond of his Chmberlain, Soraya. The relationship between the Kaiser and his mother remained cold until the mother's death in 1663.

When the Steward exiled the House of Ettlingar Freyu from Shireroth in 1651, the Kaiser was blissfully unaware of the reasons for the exile and of the consequences of the exile, though unfortunately his step-uncle Audun Joel was killed in the crossfire. The Kaiser had always had a good relationship with his step-uncle, and indeed, Audun Joel was regarded as one of the few members of the House of Ettlingar Freyu who had not been infested with a demonic entity (the other one was Prince Vilhjalm who succeeded his father Noah as King of Elwynn). As such, upon hearing of Audun Joel's death, a former kaiser, Vidar led the Imperial Court in grieving.

As the Prætor, Fjorleif, was exiled, too, it was incumbent upon the Landsraad at this time to hold an election for prætor. The Kaiser, upon hearing that it was the kaiser's duties to conduct the election, was overjoyed and went, against all advice, to the Palace of Zirandorthel where the nobled had assembled. In an embarrassing display of presiding, Vidar forced all nobles to go various sides of the Landsraad floor (depending on which candidate they supported for prætor). In the end, he counted the nobles on each side and found that one side had more. He had, however, by this time forgotten which side supported which candidate and he solemnly declared the wrong candidate elected. After a while, the Kaiser understood his error and the duly elected winner King Ryker Everstone took the Prætor's chair and hat, though seemed a bit sluggish in doing so.

After the prætorial incident, the Kaiser was sent to a small farm in Monty Crisco to learn discipline, patience and agriculture, and so that his education would continue in peace and quiet.

In the year 1653 Imperial Advisory Council travelled to the Montrano Estate to celebrate the Kaiser's eighth birthday, during which time an argument erupted over how to deal with the Froyalaners now that they had been sequestered into the Froyalan National Reserve. Following a tour of the farm and an impromptu demonstration of the use of a burdizzo, a throwaway remark by Michael Verion during a further argument on the subject of the Froyalanish question inspired Liv Dravot to consider mass castration as a solution. Although an unlikely subject over which a mother might attempt to bond with her son she nonetheless encouraged him to work overnight on a proclamation, the resulting draft was praised by the Imperial Advisory Council and accepted with few alterations.

In mid 1653, Ayreon IV received with enthusiasm the news that his second cousin (of same age as himself) Nathan II had ascended the Natopian throne as emperor. Plans were immediately made for the Kaiser to visit his cousin and his own holdings in Natopia.

The Imperial Advisory Council, growing more concerned that the Kaiser may not be all too willing to conform with the prevailing IAC ideology following the Auspicious Occasion, met to draft a new Charter that would restrict the powers of the Kaiser somewhat in favour of a regularly elected Steward. In the middle of 1653, the Landsraad debated the proposal, adopted it, and after three states (Elwynn, Goldshire and Kezan) had assented, the Kaiser was flown to Shirekeep to promulgate the new Charter. The new Charter also separated the post of Steward from that of Regent.

Regency

Over the new year's celebrations 1653–1654, Kaiser Ayreon IV hosted a state visit by one of the co-monarchs of Hoenn, Queen Kahede. Following the Auspicious Occasion, when not only the ethnic cleansing of people of Storish ancestry began throughout Shireroth but also when relations with other nations, in protect to Shireroth's actions, hit rock bottom, the Shirerithian foreign policy makers were desperate in reestablishing Shireroth's place in the world as the forefront empire of Micras. With Hoenn's territories located mostly on another planet and its population consisting of a muiltitude of various sentient species, a good and close relationship with Hoenn was a priority. As such, the young kaiser took it upon himself to do his part as head of state to host his fellow monarch and her entourage as they visited Shireroth for the celebrations. Although no firm agreements, as had been anticipated, were signed during the visit, a working group of diplomats from both Hoenn and Shireroth was established to bridge the cultural, normative and spatial differences between their tow planets so that working agreements could be later be made. With this foundation, the Kaiser and his advisors hoped that Shireroth would lead the rest of Micras in more stable and constructive interplanetary relations.

Unfortunately, that vision had to come to a halt soon after once the Jingdaoese government announced that it was resuming hostitilies against Shireroth and its allies. The political problems associated with the Florian Republic's constant switching of sides between allegiance to Shireroth and to Jingdao had made any kind of stability in Shireroth's foreign policies impossible. At the same time, the government's attention took to defending Shireroth's territory as well as engaging with the thankless task of protecting the Florian people against its own government. In a series of imperial proclamations, the Kaiser attempted to do his part in calming the ever-escalating situation, by urging the Florian people to carefully consider their future. His proclamations, written by his own hand and without the IAC's direct input, were emotional and on a positive conciliatory note, but they nontheless did not succeed the Florian Republic to return to the Shirerithian fold. This upset the kaiser greatly. He confided to the closest people around him, particularly to Lady Soraya, how hurt he was by this. He was unsure how he could ever forgive the Florians for it.

After the election of Burgrave Waldemar Zinkgraven to Steward in mid-1654, the imperial government was reformed once again. The IAC and the ministries were split from one another, with former ministers retaining IAC membership (with certain exceptions, see below). Steward Zinkgraven also placed all key ministries in corporations held in commission, in line with his ideology of corporative feudalist democracy. The idea here was that through corporations, the common people (denizens) could find a way to participate in the governance of Shireroth, and therefore be more democratic. Heath Belledin, the imperial inquisitor, denounced this move angrily as "un-Shirithian" in an IAC meeting.

Regent in Natopia

In the final months of 1654, it became apparent that the Emperor of the Natopians, Nathan II, was missing along with the Natopian regent Christo Eucalyptos and the defence secretary Marco Lungo. The matter came only to surface after the Emperor had failed to assent to bills of the Frenzy, causing the Frenzy to investigate the matter. A court case and several resolutions later, Ayreon IV found himself appointed by the Frenzy in Nathan's place. He was immediately flown to Lindström to set up the regency. Because of a quirk or deficiency in Natopian law, Ayreon, at that point not even ten years old, was considered a legal adult in Natopia and needed no "adult" to supervise him in his official capacity. In practice however the Kaiser was accompanied by his tutors, a personal secretary, a Zonophore cleric (serving as a chaplain for the group and spiritual mentor to the Kaiser), and a close protection detail of sixteen Sentinels and was thus closely supervised.

Landing in Lindström, he blundered into an impromptu press conference where he gave fielded questions with answers that displayed a remarkable degree of self-confidence, if not a certain level of naivety, before his handlers could breakup the press scrum that had gathered around the child. No sooner had he arrived to the Vista da Nada Palace, than a parcel was received at the palace including an anonymous letter stating the Emperor had been kidnapped along with the distinctive ears and thumbs of one who could not be anyone else but Eucalyptos. Ayreon immediately penned an imperial decree using the templates provided in the Natopian court. Among his first acts were to appoint Isabella Simrani-Kalirion to defence secretary and to begin an all-Natopian search for the emperor. As the abduction had gone unreported for months, Isabella promptly arrested the palace staff and replaced them with servants loyal to the House of Kalirion.

As regent, the Ayreon devoted much of his time into Bovic prayer in order to, by introspection and divine guidance, find the emperor. Through what he took to be a divine revelation, Ayreon came to believe that he knew the location of the emperor, and convinced a sceptical Secretary of Defence to dispatch a reconnaissance team to Eura to investigate.

On 13 Gevrader 1655, whilst still awaiting the recovery of the emperor, Ayreon was baptised into the Bovic faith in a ceremony officiated by his uncle, the Pentheros Aldin. The impromptu and rushed nature of the ceremony, coupled with the marked increase in the number of servile Storrish flatterers attempting to gain admission to attend upon the Kaiser whilst he was in Lindström, concerned his councillors and protectors greatly. It was also becoming apparent that the Kaiser was vulnerable to the defects in reason and excessive predisposition towards emotional lability that had scarred the psyches of his father, and great-grandfather before him.

The Kaiser's failure to consult with his officials, instead acting on impulse, also caused embarrassment on occasions; such as when the Kaiser dispatched a note of congratulation to the Queen of Malarboria on the occasion of the birth of her child when the Steward had already sanctioned the postpartum termination of the infant so as to prevent the human-daemon hybrid from reaching reproductive age.

Following an alleged divine revelation as to whereabouts of the emperor, Ayreon led the Natopian Defence Force in finding the emperor in the former Natopian colony of Xechaspolis in the barrenness of Eura. Led by Lady Isabella Kalirion, the rescue operation successfully extracted the emperor back to Lindström with only some 20 000 collateral deaths on the ground. Ayreon was pleased and watched over the emperor in hospital until the emperor was fit enough to resume his duties, whereupon Ayreon returned to Shirekeep.

Reign during the war years

As Shireroth and Natopia were at risk of attack with strategic weapons by the forces of the USSO between the years 1655 and 1656, following a Natopian orbital strike on forces massing in the Strait of Haifa, the Kaiser - along with his tutors, Holodomatic chaplains and close protection detail - was frequently moved between rural manor-houses in Brookshire, avoiding major population centres and industrial or military targets by a generous radius.

In compensation the Imperial Mother presented the young Kaiser with two gifts on his eleventh birthday, a young sablehound pup, named Dravvy after his mother and stepfather, and a Babkhano-Froyalanish girl of twelve years, Áslög-Kráka Behsoozsdóttir, so that he might have a companion for childish games and for other uses when he came of age.

The Kaiser's education, in spite of the frequent upheavals, was progressing steadily; he could read, write, and converse in Praeta, Istvanistani, Babkhi and Elw, whilst mastering arithmetic, basic algebra, as well as the simplified principles of geometry. He was taught the mythical history of the 1st and 2nd Eras of Shireroth with the expectation that the revised learning and new chronology would be introduced to him at a later stage. From his exposure to life on a working farm he had developed a sturdy work ethic.

L'affaire de Ryker

When the Hoennese queen and her entourage had visited the young Kaiser, the Kaiser had grown fond of the Hoennese realm, and devoted many hours of reading about the country, its planet and strange customs. After nagging Ryker Everstone, the Regent, to appoint an ambassador to Hoenn, the Regent eventually agreed and appointed Prince Daniel (the safir) to the position. All was well, or so everyone thought, until early 1656 when the Hoennese regency sent a letter to the regent on the appointment of a Hoennese ambassador to Shireroth. The letter, written in high ceremonial Hoennese style, was given a reply by the regent that amounted to more offence than constructive dialogue (he enclosed with the letter a cheque so the crown prince of Hoenn could buy himself a puppy). Expecting diplomatic fallout and loss of value of their shares in SHIPTT, the other members of the Imperial Advisory Council immediately met to divest Ryker of the regency and in his stead appointed a rising, but still relatively unknown, provincial magnate, Hartmut Aldric, Count of Elsyran, to the position.

Angered by this move, yet unable to convince the IAC otherwise, Ryker vowed that he would leave the imperial government for years to come. "May it rot," he said of the government to reporters, as he left Raynor's Keep. The presence of reporters suggests some lapse of security for which a number of sentinels were demoted or transferred to other regiments. The editors of the Shirekeep Gazette and the Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria were subsequently hosted by the Steward's Honour Guard at a private function and the comments went unreported.

To the public it was announced that the King of Goldshire was retiring to a secluded country mansion in Suthergold to undergo a special treatment, hinted to be reconstructive plastic surgery - his hideous disfigurement having been an unavoidable subject of court gossip for years.

The Kaiser, being told the public version of these events, was nonetheless saddened, as he had come to consider Ryker to be the only connection – aside from Aldin – to his father's side of the family. The reasoning for this sentiment was childish and ill-considered. Ryker "owned" Villy Esposito, the Kaiser's paternal uncle, as a "loyal subject", while everyone else had either died or exiled themselves in Stormark.

The King of Goldshire subsequently resolved this awkward impasse by lapsing into a coma, throwing his Kingdom once more into chaos.

Early Adolescence

In the midst of these domestic travails set against the backdrop of an ongoing global conflict, the Kaiser undertook a successful state visit to Caputia in the 8th and 9th months of 1656. On account of the ongoing conflict over the Great Western Sea and eastern Keltia, Ayreon IV became the first Kaiser to cross the north pole, as the Imperial Yacht and its escort was obliged to take an indirect route. The trip proved to be an important diplomatic coup for the embattled Imperial Republic, shoring up relations with a vital neutral trading partner at a critical time in the war against Passio-Corum. The Kaiser received unusually fulsome and genuine praise for maintaining an amiable, polite and self-disciplined façade throughout the long and exhausting sequence of official engagements, which culminated in an address to the Caputian parliament. Following the state visit, the Kaiser visited Klaasisitya to attend the memorial to the deceased former emperor Zakyyr.

As a growing child of eleven years, the Kaiser's physical education now became increasingly important. Under the careful supervision of his tutors and close protection detail the Kaiser was introduced to the sport of cross-country running around the boundaries of his rural home in Monty Crisco as well as the Elwynnese martial art of cudgel fighting. As the Kaiser's strength and physical dexterity grew the day would come when he would be introduced to the ancient Shirerithian custom of sabre fencing.

At the end of the second month of 1657, the Kaiser was struck with sorrow. His foster-father Daniyal Dravot had died in Modan-Lach. The Kaiser, for a moment inconsolable, reached out to his mother (Dravot's wife) who quickly scolded him for displaying emotions at this natural event. The Kaiser understood that he could no longer deal with childish emotions and decided he needed to toughen up. His mother depended on him for that. Not long after, the Kaiser understood that Kurai Darkmoon, the Timeless Shadow, had died in an airplane accident and that the Lengois senate had elected him King of Leng.

The sorrow did not last long, as Kaiser Ayreon IV received the news that his uncle Aldin (the identical twin of his father) has fathered a child, David, with Li Naomiai. He travelled extensively to his uncle and aunt in Natopia, and also visited the Elian Union where he pushed for a separate Normark identity in that union.

In the middle of 1657, he welcomed Mira Octavius-Aryani as the new Steward of the Imperial Republic after the outgoing Waldemar Zinkgraven, who was subsequently recalled from his campaign against Nova England. Zinkgraven rejected these orders, which some of his subordinate officers interpreted as an arrest warrant, throwing the campaign into disarray, sparking a three-sided armed confrontation in the Warring Isles between the Imperial Navy, the Sea-Reavers, and the Babkhi mercenaries provided from Jadid Khaz Modan and Elwynn by Liv Dravot.

Mira Octavius-Aryani's government did away with the explicit corporativism in the government, returning the ministers to actual people from corporative entitities. For the young kaiser, still under the regency, he was pleased that the Imperial Household Agency was returned to its earlier holder, his tutor Soraya Octavius-Parini, who continued the kaiser's education. At this time, he had, despite much agony and frustration, mastered Babkhi calligraphy. Although he preferred speaking in his maternal Norse, his Babkhi was fully functional and sounded native, and his Elw had a better quality than Elwynnese children his age. When it came to Præta, however, he kept struggling with grammatical gender (constantly mixing them up), and he refused to even employ the imperfect form of verbs, making his Præta sound, as one observed described it, "weird". The Kaiser never enjoyed speaking Præta, making claims such as "I am an Elwynnese, we don't speak Præta", with his teacher counter-arguing "you're the kaiser, you are Shireroth, you have to know proper grammar." Resigned to his fate, he, the good student he was, spent countless nights memorizing the proper gender of a range of Præta nouns. Unfortunately, it was to little success.

Meanwhile, in Stormark, the government there saw the estates inherited there by him upon his father's and his grandmother Noor's deaths fall into malmanagement and disarray. The Kaiser, for obvious reasons precluded from dealing with the Storish authorities or visiting the country, had, in the Storish government's view, interests in these assets. Maintaining a hope that the Kaiser would, at some point in the future, have the strength and courage to restore relations with Stormark and provide restoration to the country for the events during the Auspicious Occasion, the Storish government introduced a bill in the Althing (in mid 1658) that made Ayreon's (illegitimate) aunt Esther Fatima Gudrid his legal guardian in that country. She would take care of all his assets there until such time that the Kaiser would go there. Hearing the news of these events, the Kaiser was genuinely surprised that he indeed had any assets in Stormark of value, and was intrigued to their worth. When asking his tutors of the matter, they refused to go into any detail, and the Imperial Advisory Council unequivocally informed the kaiser that he may not, under any circumstances, travel to Stormark or deal with any assets of his there.

The Elian Union

Spending more and more time in Natopia, particularly in Normark, whose language he spoke with native fluency, and in Lindström, the Kaiser attended to the government of the Elian Union, assisted by his tutors and advisers whilst enjoying the continued protection of his Sentinels and the looming cannons of the Medusa providing a vigilant overwatch of his residence. He took particular interest in the Norse nation and he was instrumental in setting up a separate Norse demesne within the Elian Union. Ayreon's governing in the Elian Union was widely considered to be a practice round of rule before he was to take on the kaisership a few years later in 1660.

Privately, whenever he was in Lindström, he spent a lot of a time with the Natopian emperor, Nathan II, and the two grew very close. Nathan became Ayreon's close companion with whom he could relax, with only his close protection detail from the shire:Order of the Sentinels monitoring his words and actions (as to order their removal would have triggered a cascading diplomatic incident).

Ayreon was also present in Natopia during the death of the former Alexandrian emperor Edgard II. He attended memorials for the late emperor as Kaiser and as King, remembering fondly how their relationship began after the death of Ayreon's grandmother Noor, whose funeral Edgard, battling his own illnesses, took large efforts in attending.

Having inherited the Duchy of Istvanistan in Neridia after the death of his grandmother Noor, Ayreon had at this time taken on his right to take part in the government of the Most Serene Union. Though after some disagreements with the Shirerithian-originated Neridian prince Janus Eadric on the powers of the Duchy and on the future constitutional direction of the demesne, Ayreon sought to abdicate that duchy. At this point, Ayreon's advisers proposed an alternative solution, so as to avoid the unfortunate precedent of the Kaiser abdicating titles and lands bestowed by an allied power. Accordingly, they brought together representatives of the Most Serene Union, the Principality of Arboria, and of course the Elian Union, to broker a complicated deal on changes of noble territorial jurisdiction. For Ayreon's part, it meant that he in 1658 disavowed his claim on the Duchy of Istvanistan, whilst retaining certain privileges there, and return acquired the duchy of New Aquitane from the Principality of Arboria. To square the circle and reward Arboria, the underdeveloped Transegale territory, along with a few small islands on the western coast of Benacia, was ceded by the Elian Union. In this way all three demesne unions were said to have gained something from the convoluted chain of territorial exchanges.

The only drawback for the Elian Union and Arboria was that their demesnal unions no longer made strict sense as territorial and cultural entities. The Elian Union had always seemed to be a somewhat haphazard assembly of Keltian, Benacian, Cibolan, and Tapferite territories, now the recent Tapferite gains had been swapped out for a landlocked Apollonian duchy. Similarly Arboria's rule over the Transegale made scant sense either, except maybe as a colonial enterprise - and the Princess of Arboria was reputedly well satisfied by the addition of Tapferite copper mines to the portfolio of her burgeoning maritime realms.